Hey all! Been a long minute since I’ve been in the forums! I have a Dubl Duck razor that I inherited from my great-grandpa that I shaved with for a while. I sent it out to get honed by @gssixgun a few years ago and it came back amazing! I shaved with it for a about 6 months, then won some DE razors in PIFs and started using both. I’m an airline pilot, so I can’t take my SR with me when I travel, but I bring my Gillette Tuckaway that I found at an antique store with me on my trips to shave with. I want to get back to shaving with my straight razor whenever I get home. I’m just curious if I should send it out to get honed again, or should I shave with it and see if it tugs first? I have a strop at home that I am comfortable with that I also inherited from my great-grandpa. Any tips/tricks/etc for getting back comfortably with a SR would be great! I remember how calming it was to me to set up my shave-space when I was shaving with it a while back and I want to get back there. I’ll post a picture below of the SR and the Gillette Tuckaway I take on my trips! Thanks in advance!
Beauties! No reason not to strop it and give it a spin. Welcome back... always great to see a nice heirloom razor like that. Tom
Thanks! Yeah, I love having his old razor. He came to the US from sweden and I got all his genetics haha. (Only blue eyed, only blond, and palest in my family, but look like him) It’s nice to connect and to shave with something I know he was using before/around WWII. Found the in a box of his stuff including 3 newspapers from the attack on Pearl Harbor, the bombing of Hiroshima, and day Lee Harvey Oswald was shot.
Periodically I refresh my razors using lapping film and a finishing stone when the edge starts to fade. Lapping film can be found on eBay and is an inexpensive way to keep your blades sharp when they need it. I rarely go beyond the 1 micron unless I have a small chip or have ignored the edge too long. So, getting some 5 micron, 3 micron, and 1 micron film (don’t get the adhesive backing) should do the trick. You simply lay the film on a flat surface that you’ve sprayed with water (like a ceramic tile), spray some water on the film, tape the spine of your razor, and you’re ready to do some honing. I believe some less than one micron film is also available if you don’t want to buy a finishing stone. I also do a few laps on some pasted felt after each shave to keep the edge sharp longer. Following the above routine I have never had to rehone the bevel on a razor after it has come back from @gssixgun. Note - watch some videos of honing to get an idea of what to do @gssixgun has some excellent ones out there on YouTube. And, beware the rabbit hole
Thank you for all the great information! I will definitely be buying some lapping films! I started looking into lapping films a while back, but didn’t have the time to dedicate to learning it with our last baby’s due date quickly arriving, but now she’s a year old, so I’m “free” ! I love the YouTube rabbit hole and gssixgun’s videos. I’ll have to watch them again! I spend many many hours diving through the rabbit hole looking for good content haha.
